A. On top of that, he's super smart and intellectual. He's driven and a real go-getter like you!

B. OK, I'm sold, when do I get to meet him?

A.I don't know, as soon as you're free.

My comments:

In other words, I buy it – you’ve convinced me of his value.

This phrase “I’m sold” must have been inspired by the everyday transaction of buying and selling in the marketplace. When a seller makes his sales pitch, i.e. saying a lot of good things about his products, you evaluate his words while inspecting the goods – to see if the quality of the products matches the salesman’s good words. If you’re convinced, you say: “OK, I buy it.”

That’s when, in other words, “you’re sold”.

Metaphorically, in the above example, Person B is convinced of the good words Person A has to say about the third person who’s “super smart”, “intellectual”, “driven”, “a real go-getter like you” and so forth. And so he says “OK, I’m sold, when do I get to meet him?”

Otherwise, he would’ve said: “I don’t buy it - I don’t believe he’s as good as you say he is. Don’t bother bringing him here. I don’t want to meet him.”

Related stories:

Flip-flop

Sit on its hands

Casing the joint

Free rein

Bear the brunt of

Cross one’s path

Tribute projects

Off the beaten track

At the forefront of

Seat warmer

The rule of the jungle

On-the-go

On the fence

Wild guess

In the high teens

Touch up

Unforced error

Catch a break

City slicker

Political correctness

Gee up

Big mind

Blanket statement

Making knee-jerk changes is not in our DNA

Pick one's brains

A good eye

Thank one's stars for

Real money

Nodding acquaintance

Flip out over nothing

Bury the hatchet& have an ax to grind

Vocal proponent

Growing pains

Fleeting acquaintance

All-weather friend

Lead the pack

Fish or cut bait

Gilt-edged

To do more with less

Right down the middle

Take my word for it

40-sometimes

Last but not the least

Call it a dog

Pull my leg

Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點(diǎn)，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.